Economic Strikes in 1912 and in 1905

Published:PravdaNo. 130, June 8, 1913.

      Signed:V. I..

      Published according to thePravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 19,

      pages201-202.Translated:The Late George HannaTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Thestatistics on economic strikes compiled by the
Association of Factory Owners in the Moscow Area enable us to draw some
parallels between 1912 and 1905. In doing so we shall have to limit
ourselves to three groups of industries—metalworking, textile and
“others”, because the factory owners’ association does not give a more
detailed classification in its statistics.

Hereare the parallel figures:

Thefigures for 1905 include onlypurelyeconomic strikes;
those with mixed motives, both economic and political, have been
omitted. The figures for 1911 and 1912 seem to be far from complete.

Ifwe take the 1905 figures as the starting-point, a comparison of
these figures shows us that in 1911 the strike effort of the textile
workers wasgreaterthan that of the metal-workers and
“others”. In 1911 more than half the total number of strikers were
textile workers; their number was more than three times that of the
metalworkers. In 1905 the number of textile workers on strike was only two
and a half times the number of metalworkers.

Asfar as the “others” are concerned, the number of strikers in these
branches was about the same as the number of striking metalworkers in both
1905 and 1911.

In1912, however, the metalworkers made an astounding advance, leaving
the “others” far behind and almost catching up with the textile workers.

Thenumber of metalworkers who took part in strikes in 1912 was more
thanfour timesthe number for 1911. In the same period the number
of strikers among the textile workers increased by only 50 per cent (60,000
and 89,000), while that of the “others” increased by just 150 per cent.

Itfollows, therefore, that the metalworkers made good use of the
favourable market conditions of 1912. Encouraged by the victories of 1911,
they went over to a more extensive and more determined offensive.

Workersin the “other” branches of industry were also in a favourable
position in 1912. Their economic struggle was still more successful than
that of the metalworkers, but they did not make such good use of their
favourable position as the metalworkers did.

Theposition of the textile workers in 1912 was worse than that of
workers in any other branch of industry; their economic struggle was the
least successful. In view of this the number of strikers among them
increased more slowly than in other branches.

Thefactory owners of the Moscow area hope that the wave of strikes
will be weaker in 1913. We read in their report for 1912: “The situation
in the textile industry is clear enough; until the state of the new harvest
is known the mills will work at a slower rate and for the workers to strike
under these conditions would be very imprudent.”

Weshall see to what extent this assumption is justified. In any case
both the year of 1912 and the beginning of 1913 have shown thateconomicstrikes constitute only a small part of theentire“strike wave